"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

Over the weekend the Aberles took me to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. I found it very enlighting, seeing as how his second term as president started the year I was born. I didn't really know that much about the Reagan Administration before going, somehow this history was lacking from my schooling. The big item of interest there is the Air Force One that has been retired, complete with the Nuclear Football. I have now been to two Presential Libraries. Abraham Lincoln's in Illinois is also quite impressive.

I will not link to the Library website as I have found it one of the most annoying sites to navigate (it opens a new window for every link).

The Bookstore

Amazon.com is great and all, but I just can't get the same experience there that I get in a real bookstore. Today I wandered around at a Barnes and Noble and browsed the books. I really enjoy just wandering around the bookstore and seeing what is on the shelves. Picking up a book and browsing through it is great. I also like to own books, Libraries are great, but something about having a book on your bookshelf is better. I tend to have books on my shelf that I want to get around to reading. They languish there with a bookmark at page fifty or so, and then one week I will pick them up and finish them. I guess I just have to be in the right mood the read a book on a paticular topic. The books on my bookshelf range from Sci-Fi, to Historical looks at human culture, to Comic books, to Computer Science books, to Language Instruction, to Horror, to Mangna, to Classic Liturature.

One of my hobbies is to collect bookmarks made out of unusual materials. My favorite bookmark is a leather one from the gift shop at the Sumpreme Court building. But hardbacks and softcover books have different bookmark needs. I wouldn't use my big Supreme Court bookmark on a softcover, it just wouldn't work as well. I have a pagemarker from Israel that is great for smaller books.

I purchased two books that I plan on reading. I escaped my usual Science Fiction choice (partly because I am listenting to some Science Fiction books from my audible.com account). I hope to work my way through The Tenth Man by Graham Greene and And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. I just realized that I choose two books that deal with a group of ten people, hmm.

Thursday is Laundry day

Yup, best day of the week to do laundry.

Don't click here or here unless you are a really big Star Trek geek.


Tick tock tick tock tick tick.
- Neal Stephenson

And more very short story goodness can be found here.

This week in California

I finally got around to getting the pictures off my camera, and then found out that matthew.schrenk.org is down, so no pictures yet.

Not too much happening, visited Altadena last weekend, and going this weekend.

My Nephew and Father have their birthdays on Friday. Arthur's birthday party is this weekend, so I am going to miss it :(

I have ridden my bike every day to work this week. Overall a quiet week in Lake Wobeg.. I mean Redwood City.

I leave you with Ernest Hemingway's short: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

Wii Experience

Ok, less then a month left to the release of the Wii. They posted these videos on us.wii.com. I am just so excited by the release of the Nintendo Wii.

I know you want your grandparents playing this, just look at this.

Habeas Corpus, R.I.P. (1215 - 2006)

I have to agree that this is really bad.

Excerpt from:

The Constitution of the United States

Article I Section9.2. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.


Ok now consider the following excerpt from the Military and Commisions act:

section 7 "(e)(1) No court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to
hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained by the United States who has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination."


I would have to say that these two documents are in contridiction.

(for information on important social and political documents I recommend www.constitution.org espically the founding documents page)


I also don't think that many of these people held are getting any help from these:

Article the sixth [Amendment IV]

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Article the seventh [Amendment V]

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Article the eighth [Amendment VI]

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have

the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

The Robot

The kid in the orange shirt has all the moves. Impressive.

300,000,000

"On or around October 17th, according to the Census Bureau's population clock, the number of people in the country will hit 300m, up from 200m in 1967."

Today was the day that the USA probably reached 300 Million people. As the economist points out a growing population is unsual among the developed countries of the world.

Later in the article is an interesting statistic: "At the Woodlands, a 28,000-acre (11,300 hectares) planned community north of Houston, you can buy a three-bedroom family home on a quiet wooded street for $130,000. By comparison, the median house price in San Francisco is over $700,000."

Location, Location, Location. What a difference in price.

Leek Spin

Can you stop watching this?

The interweb never ceases to amuse.

Things are going ok here in Redwood City. Not much new.

Paraskevidekatriaphobia

Yup, today is 10/13/2006.

1 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 6 = 13

Paraskevidekatriaphobia is the fear of Friday the 13th. I hope you all had a good, because we all know that there is no such thing as luck, well at least 91% of us do according to gallop.

Oh, the humanity!

I think that the last line here made my day. War truly is a gruesome thing. Don't try this at home kids.

One soldier told him later: "Sir, three years ago before I joined the army, I never thought I'd say 'That damn marijuana'."

Things that have come to my attention

I thought I had a bad cold, then I saw what was happening to my brother.

The Economist taught me that the f-word is fascism.

At dinner I luckily remembered reading on the NyQuil label not to have alcohol while on the medication.

Habeus Corpus has been suspended elminated, just for funzies.

Monday, October 9th, was Leif Erikson Day.

Board Game Geek continues to be the best board game website.

I just can't support IceWeasel, the Debian arguments against using FireFox just don't resonate with me.

Jupiter's little white spot is now red.

That is all.

I've Never Seen Him Fall

This cold is getting the better of me. I just got back to Redwood City and am feeling terrible. This is one of my worst colds ever. I have called in the reinforcements in the form of NyQuil (well actually the generic equivlent because it costs half as much). So hopefully this will keep me tonight till I take the DayQuil type liquid tomorrow.

I really will get some pictures up sometime (there are not as many as I had hoped to take, but I was too busy to get lots of pictures).

My poor sinuses were brutalized by the airplane.

Ticket to ride

My weekend trip has been extensive. Redwood City to SFO to STL to Creve Coeur to Urbana/Champaign to Taylor to Creve Coeur. Tomorrow I am flying back out of STL to SFO then heading back to my apartment in Redwood City.

It has been a wonderful time. My sister, Rachel, and niece, Madeline, were in St. Louis when I got in and I had not seen them since I moved out to California. Madeline is getting so big, and has quite a lot of hair. She is very cute and bonded well with her cousin, Arthur.

I had dinner with the family at a Japanese Restaurant named Oishi which means delicious. If you have never had sushi, I really recommend trying it. The first roll you should probably try is a California roll which has crab, avacado, cucumber, rice, and seaweed.

Later that night, I spent some time with the couple whos wedding I was in this past summer. We had a good chat. I really miss my midwest friends. They are both teaching now, and I am amazed by everyone getting married and having real jobs. Life sure moves fast sometimes.

Every year for the last 29 years the Manger family in Champaign has a weiner roast and hayrack ride. I have not missed one in 22 years. They invite back many people who lived in the area over the years. The event got too big for the U of I students and everyone else to come on the same night, so now the students come on Friday and everyone else on Saturday. I made it to both even though I am no longer a student. Friday was wonderful, we had about one rack of students and the moon was amazing. It was one of the brightest nights I have ever seen, the stars were hardly visible because of the full moon. We had a lot of good fellowship and we sang a number of songs on the hayrack ride. As I talked to others I found out that most of the students that I know really well will be graduating this year, and as I said above, Life sure moves fast sometimes.

The weekend was wonderful, and I was able to pack in a lot of good times. I have some pictures, but won't be able to post them till I get back to California. I also have a cold that I think I got from Arthur, for a little guy he sure has strong germs.

Pink for October

As I am sure you have noticed my page is pink this month. I will try to improve the look when I have the time, but right now you will have to deal with the assault on the senses that is the background. I am doing this because October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I got the idea from this guy with his pinkforoctober.org site. This will also force me to actually work on the template for my blog and keep it up to date. Although I do like the minimal black look, I will probably go back to something more like that in the future.